VISUAL ARTS + MUSEUMS

Rudolph Blume Fine Art/ ArtScan Gallery presents Specious Instant: Steve Hodges, Justin Varner, Jakob Christmas.  Opening Reception Thursday, July 14, 6-8pm. Organized by the Dishman Gallery of Lamar University, the exhibition celebrates the legacy of Steve Hodges who died in August of 2010. Steve Hodges was an acclaimed teacher at LU and for the "Specious Instant" show two of his former students (and later friends and collaborators) exhibited with Steve in order to honor their mutual interactions and influences.

Steve Hodges was a philosopher with a paintbrush. Coming of age during the tumultuous 60s he was the perfect rebel seeking to upend established conventions. Unlike Duchamp, however, he set himself boundaries: the flat canvas. Onto this conventional tablet he unleashed a torrent of painterly experimentations, existentialist musings and acerbic comments about the human condition. His favorite metaphor was a person inside a room or box, often with a window attached in order to remind the viewer of the existential dilemma in comprehending our reality.

His former students Justin Varner and Jakob Christmas started out on different paths. Justin Varner at first painted in an abstract manner, but then was persuaded by the urban grittiness of a decaying Port Arthur social landscape to explore this reality.  Jakob Christmas, in contrast, started out as a realist painter, but later converted to a painting style, that allowed him to create paintings that are immediate and direct.

(Excerpts from an essay by Leonard Shlain : "Steve Hodges : Art with Boundaries"  Visit the Rudolph Projects website for the full essay).